‘Dawn Of The Jedi’: James Mangold Cites ’10 Commandments’ & ‘Ben-Hur’ Inspiration For His ‘Star Wars’ Film

At last weekend’s Star Wars Celebration, Lucasfilm head Kathleen Kennedy revealed three new “Star Wars” movies in the pipeline.  Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy will direct a film that centers around Daisy Ridley‘s Rey; Dave Filoni has a film that culminates “The Mandalorian” and its connected Disney+ series; and James Mangold will helm “Dawn Of The Jedi,” about the birth of the Jedi order 25,000 years ago.

Amon Warmann Guest Contributor On almost any other day, a train car full of Mandalorians, Grand Admiral Thrawns, Ahsokas, and Obi-Wans may have seemed strange. But for the four days of Star Wars Celebration, this was the norm on the 8 a.m. DLR train. Even before you stepped foot inside the event’s vast ExCeL Centre venue in East London, the Star Wars community was well represented, with people of all ages and ethnicities cosplaying as their favorite characters, be they as popular as Darth Vader or as niche as the umbrella-like lightsaber-wielding Sith Lord from “Star Wars: Visions.” If you need a reminder that, sometimes, fandoms can be good, Star Wars Celebration is it. Without the racist backlash against new characters played by people of color, or interminable hate tweets about specific movies, the event showcases the fandom at its best — as a joyous, inventive, inclusive and delightfully weird affair; a place where you’re as likely to stumble upon a mob of prisoner-attired fans chanting “One Way Out!” in unison as you are to witness an Orson Krennic striptease.

TV series adaptation of the Harry Potter books … only 11 years after they completed a massively popular eight-film adaptation of those same novels, which loads of people are still watching. Disney is planning a live-action version of its musical cartoon “Moana,” which hit theaters in 2016 and is best known for its suddenly threatening song title “How Far I’ll Go.” It will star famed Disney princess Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.And — in a galaxy, far, far away that’s become far, far overstretched — Daisy Ridley is returning to play boring Rey in yet another “Star Wars” film, even though we were adamantly told that the Skywalker Saga was over back in 2019. Hollywood is suffering from a far more insidious disease than a simple bout of sequelitis. And its symptoms are much worse than those of the Nostalgiavirus.

Prior to this year’s Star Wars Celebration event, folks were anticipating quite a bit of TV news, as well as the possibility that Lucasfilm would announce one new film. Well, we definitely got that, but even more, as the studio unveiled details about not one, but three new “Star Wars” films from directors Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy, Dave Filoni, and James Mangold, respectively.

Timothée Chalamet stays busy in 2023, with Denis Villenueve‘s “Dune: Part Two” and Paul King‘s “Wonka” in theaters later this year. But what about after that? Well, he and James Mangold team up for a Bob Dylan biopic, and according to the director, Chalamet will do his own singing as the legendary folk musician.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director One of the biggest announcements to emerge out of Star Wars Celebration was the return of Daisy Ridley as Rey in a new movie that will follow the events of “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker,” which concluded the most recent Skywalker trilogy in 2019. Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy (“Ms. Marvel”) is directing the still-untitled Rey movie from a script by Steven Knight (“Peaky Blinders”). Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy said at the fan convention that Ridley’s new “Star Wars” movie will follow Rey as she builds a new Jedi Order, but the executive teased a bit more about the plot in an interview with IGN: “Star Wars” fans will pick up with Rey well over a decade after “The Rise of Skywalker.”

Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen share a secret handshake on stage at the Obi-Wan Kenobi panel during the 2023 Star Wars Celebration in London at ExCel on Sunday (April 9).

The ladies of Star Wars: Ahsoka gather up for a group shot following a special panel for the upcoming series in London over the weekend.

Star Wars film, which he says is about “the discovery of the Force”.This week (April 7) Star Wars confirmed that three new films are in the works for the franchise, the first of which will be directed by Mangold, who has also directed this year’s upcoming Indiana Jones film, Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny.According to LucasFilm president Kathleen Kennedy, who appeared at this year’s Star Wars Celebration in London, the film will explore “the first Jedi to wield the force”.Speaking to Empire, Mangold has opened up more about the film and when it will be set.He said: “It takes place 25,000 years before Episode IV, and it’s about the discovery of the Force.“I told Kathy [Kennedy] I wanted to make a kind of Bible movie, a kind of Ten Commandments of Star Wars – kind of a Cecil B DeMille film about the arrival of the Force, and that’s what I’ve been pecking away at between press events. That’s the idea.”He continued: “It’s a movie that both connects to the worlds we know, but is also far enough away from it that I think there’s a lot of opportunities to tell a story freely, also…and not be so incredibly tied in by the knots and different story strands that are already in place.”A post shared by Empire Magazine (@empiremagazine) The second new Star Wars film will be directed by The Mandalorian co-creator Dave Filoni.

Taika Waititi‘s Star Wars project is taking a while.

Timothée Chalamet is ready to play Bob Dylan on the big screen and he will be doing his own singing.

Charna Flam At the Star Wars Celebration fan convention in London, Lucasfilm made a major series of announcements on the future of “Star Wars.” Three new features are on the way, recruiting directors Dave Filoni and James Mangold, and four series, including “Ahsoka.” Produced by Jon Favreau and writer Filoni, the series will follow Anakin Skywalker’s beloved Togruta padawan, Ahsoka Tano. The highly anticipated event is set to premiere in August on Disney+. “Star Wars” viewers ‘were first introduced to Ahsoka in 2008, in “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” animated film.

Taika Waititi  projects. Yes, they're still happening, though it's still very much unclear exactly as to .ET's Ash Crossan spoke to Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy at the event in London, and she essentially reminded fans that no project is ever completely dead in Hollywood. When asked about the Lando series and Waititi's project, Kennedy said they're undoubtedly still in the works.«Oh yeah, all that's underway,» she told ET.

Star Wars Celebration is in full swing in London. Yesterday, we got some big updates about new films from James Mangold, Dave Filoni, and Daisy Ridley‘s return as Rey for the upcoming movie helmed by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy (“Ms.

Back in October, I was able to get reliable information that said Danish actor Lars Mikkelsen, brother of Mads Mikkelsen, was indeed set to reprise the role of Grand Admiral Thrawn in live-action for Dave Filoni’s “Star Wars” series, “Ahsoka.” And today during the show’s panel at Star Wars Celebration in London the studio made it official by having Mikkelsen appear on stage (see below).

“Star Wars” fans have received a lot of news coming out of Star Wars Celebration Europe, being held this weekend in London.

Tales of the Jedi cocreator Dave Filoni is using the Force to bring us a second season.

Star Wars Celebration in London, Variety spoke with Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy about some of the franchise’s future installments. Kennedy was keen to talk about bringing back Daisy Ridley’s Rey for a new “Star Wars” film, which was announced during an April 7 panel. “It was a pretty straightforward phone call,” she said. “I started out by just saying, ‘Hey, I think we’re getting near being ready.’ We’ve been talking a lot about what we’re doing in the movie space and I said, ‘I think we’re getting close to being ready. How would you like to go to Celebration?’ That was really the beginning of it. She was out of her mind excited.”

David Tennant and Lars Mikkelsen have joined Lucasfilm’s upcoming Ahsoka series.

Star Wars” villain on the upcoming Disney+ series “Ahsoka,” Lucasfilm announced on Saturday as part of the Star Wars Celebration fan convention in London. Mikkelsen also joined the cast of “Ahsoka” onstage at the end of the panel. Thrawn was originally created by author Timothy Zahn as part of a series of Star Wars novels released in the 1990s that covered the events following 1983’s “Return of the Jedi.” In those books, Thrawn was a cunning and ruthless Grand Admiral in the Empire who takes control of what’s left of the Imperial fleet and mounts a counter-offensive to take down the New Republic.

Adam B. Vary Senior Entertainment Writer The past, present and future of Star Wars was on ample display on Friday at the Star Wars Celebration fan convention, as Lucasfilm unveiled the most robust look yet at the company’s plans for the hallowed franchise. As studio chief Kathleen Kennedy revealed three new feature films and first looks at four upcoming TV series, Lucasfilm made clear it aims to test just how far it can stretch the Star Wars galaxy: creatively, logistically and even historically. Starting with “The Phantom Menace” and concluding with “The Rise of Skywalker,” the previous nine “Star Wars” movies have all taken place within a roughly 70-year timeline, straddling the climactic Battle of Yavin in “A New Hope” that has served as the official fulcrum point for the franchise for six decades. Every live-action and animated spinoff TV series has unfolded within that timeframe, including the shows launched on Disney+: “The Mandalorian,” “The Book of Boba Fett,” “Andor,” “The Bad Batch” and the upcoming shows “Ahsoka” and “Skeleton Crew.” (“Visions,” an animated anthology series launched in 2021, exists outside of Star Wars canon.)